Heartbeats and Kicks
by Arimay
Summary: The most exciting part of new parenthood is the mystery and wonder of a new life. Of course, it can also be the most infuriating.


**Heartbeats and Kicks**

_Author's note: This takes place about four months after Blood and Other Necessities, two months before Love is a Battlefield._

_Enjoy!_

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><p>"Isn't that just a little bit premature?"<p>

Selene raised her eyebrows as Michael entered the bedroom with a loaded white plastic bag in one hand. In the other, he held a rattle covered in a soft cloth, coloured in pastels.

On his face was a grin of excitement.

"Wait, wait, wait." He placed the rattle on the bed and dug through the bag, this time producing a white jumpsuit with fluffy white booties and a baby's cap with the same fluffy white trimming around the bottom. "Cute?"

She smiled at his eagerness. "Adorable. But isn't it too soon to be buying these things? Isn't there a superstition attached to buying baby things too early?"

The smile stayed plastered to Michael's face as he gathered the items and returned them to the bag. He dropped the bag on the floor and lay beside her on his front, one arm around her waist, his head level with her stomach.

"Maybe for humans." He lifted her shirt and pressed his lips to her rounded stomach, smoothing the skin with his hands. "I don't have any doubts that you'll go to full term. Why be superstitious?"

"Michael, anything could happen. You said yourself we have no way of knowing how far along I am."

"I'm estimating four or five months," he replied, looking up at her with dancing eyes.

"So that's four or five months in which everything could go horribly wrong."

His smile drooped. He moved to his knees, kneeling beside her now on the bed. "Why would you say something could go wrong?" he asked, his brow furrowed in a frown. "You're a vampire, and our baby is part hybrid. Surely if any pregnancy could go well, it would be yours."

"Have you known morning sickness to last all day, every day, for three months?"

Michael thought for the briefest of moments. "It's not completely unheard of, but-"

Selene was not ready to let this rest. "Can you say in all honesty that you've ever witnessed the birth of a vampire or hybrid baby?"

"Well, obviously not, but-"

"And, more importantly." Selene hesitated at this point, her hand stroking her midsection as her eyes followed the trail. "We haven't even felt the baby move. How can we be sure it's still alive?"

Michael sighed. "We can't be. But, Selene, all new mothers experience these same concerns. You're not alone."

"The difference is that most new mothers can have an ultrasound to check on these things, to make sure everything is going well. We don't have that luxury."

He said nothing, but leant down to her stomach. Instead of pressing his lips to her skin, he turned his head, instead placing his hear to her belly.

Selene frowned. "What are you-" She was interrupted as Michael held up a finger to shush her.

He remained in that position for close to ten minutes, moving his head around her stomach. Then, he was completely still. He was turned away from her at that point, so she couldn't be sure he hadn't fallen asleep.

She was about to question him when he answered the unspoken enquiry.

"The baby is alive," he said with a smile in his voice.

Her eyes widened. "You mean you can hear it?"

He looked up, nodded, and smiled widely. "It's faint, but definitely there. The heart rate sounds about normal. 120-130 beats per minute."

Selene still appeared incredulous. "You can hear our baby's heartbeat without a stethoscope?"

Michael nodded and crawled his way up the bed to stretch out beside her. "Don't worry," he said, taking her hands. "You'll feel it moving soon enough. And then, you'll want it to stop."

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><p>He was asleep at 3:05am when Selene woke him with a thump landed to the centre of his chest. He sat up with a start, jumping the same way a coding patient jumps when given the electric paddles.<p>

Michael coughed, looked at her wide-eyed. "What the hell did you do that for?" He didn't sound angry, just shocked to have been waken in such a way. "You could have tapped me lightly on the shoulder. You didn't have to give me a heart attack!"

Selene was sitting up, one hand on her stomach and the other on the bed between them. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice indicating nothing of the sort. "I tried shaking you, but it didn't work. You could sleep through an air raid."

Michael scrubbed his eyes, his heart rate slowing now as he adjusted to being awake. He now took in her calm appearance, her expectant face. There didn't seem to be any particular reason that she had shocked him into awakening other than to fulfil a personal fetish.

One that, at this point, he was very unwilling to play out.

"So, why did you wake me?" he asked, feeling more awake and alive than he had in weeks.

She shrugged and looked away. "Nothing important," she said blandly.

Now he was becoming infuriated. "You woke me with the kind of punch that would kick start the heart of a flat-lining seventy year old man to tell me nothing important?"

Selene looked at him mildly. Was that a smirk on her face? Michael felt his temperature rise.

"I thought you might like to feel our baby moving." She said this with the same careless attitude that she had spoken with since waking him.

In his anger, Michael almost missed the meaning of the words. As they slowly sunk in, dripping through his mind like water through filter paper, he smiled.

"Really?" he asked, getting to his knees. "It's moving."

Selene nodded, taking his hand and pressing it to the side of her belly. "It started about ten minutes ago. I was going to let you sleep, but-" She paused. "Feel that?"

This time Michael nodded, his face set in wonder. "This is real," he mused. "It's really happening."

"Well, you knew that yesterday when you heard the heartbeat." She smiled. "This has made it real for me."

Michael leant up to kiss her lips. "Now do you believe the baby is still alive?"

She nodded. "Although you were wrong about one thing."

"What's that?"

"I don't ever want this to stop."


End file.
